Out of Sync roundup

Since its completion in 2009, a lot has happened to Out of Sync. After premiering at Indies for Indies in Pittsburgh, it hit the global festival circuit. I’ve already posted about my visit to Rutger Hauer’s I’ve Seen Films International Film Festival in Milan, where Out of Sync received a Special Mention Prize, but the film also screened at Palm Beach International Film Festival in Florida, Choice Cuts Short Film Festival in London and the brand new Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival in Maine.

Interestingly enough, the short achieved its greatest success online. A few weeks after a hi-res version was uploaded and added to the website, Out of Sync was picked up by Vimeo Staff Picks and featured by MUBI Garage, resulting in a total of 58,000 views (and counting). A quick glance at Vimeo’s comment section will give you an indication of how well it’s been received.

“This is a terrific movie. Formally adventurous and technically impeccable but with soul and a point. A rare combination of aspects. The story is told in a very intricate, borderline too-clever manner, toying with literary POV techniques yet somehow never losing track of the basic feelings of the couple and the issues that complicate their relationship. The style is very cognizant of film history, but not a slave to it. Gelderblom’s got his own voice, and it’s rich and assured.”

“It’s the shapes, the rigid color palette, the horizontal lines battling with the verticals, the close-ups wrestling with the long views (with birds sizzling precisely along a flowered horizon at one point), and it’s the disconnect between the sound and image in the first half of Peet Gelderblom’s too-short Out of Sync–these are the facets that rivet us most. (…) The haziness of a weekday morning is palpable, and the gentle tans of the woman’s cosmos clash with the gunky greys of the man’s. (…) A promising exercise for a promising new director.”

“What a great film! Nicely shot, edited and with superb sound editing. It reminded me a lot of the formalist theories about the use of sound–and especially of the infamous and long-lost Bezhin Lug, directed by Eisenstein in 1937, which was banned and destroyed precisely because of its insistence on not syncing up sound and images.”

“An added bonus to the Indies for Indies program was the short Out Of Sync, which preceeded the main feature. An experimental Dutch feature about a couple’s supposed break-up that has the dialogue not synced-up properly with what is shown on screen. Smart, reminding one of the sensation of watching one show while overhearing the same show telecast from another room.”